Teaching English in Saudi Arabia

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

The goal of this workshop is to introduce participants to strategies that maximize use of available time and assist them in alleviating time management problems It will focus on time awareness, time wasters, getting the right things done, setting priorities, planning, handling interruptions, disorganization, dealing with procrastination, dealing with (or avoiding) crises, and controlling their life. After attending the workshop, participants should be able to do such things as: write a personal mission statement, state and follow their long- and short-term goals, analyze their use and misuse of time, identify time wasters, use daily records and logs, trace their patterns of procrastination, recorded daily activities for one week on a time use inventory, decompose tasks into sequentially, temporally ordered activities, prioritize tasks and classify activities according to importance and urgency, develop a realistic “to-do” list, use a calendar, wristwatch or clock; practice punctuality, use a time management system such as a planner or computer program, maintain an organized work environment (organize desk, office, briefcase, and computer files), schedule uninterrupted time to engage in important tasks, control paper work, visitors, meetings, and telephone calls, undertake energizing activities.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

Undergraduate students majoring in Islamic Studies at the women’s colleges in Saudi arabia need to take an English-for-Specific-Purposes (ESP) course each year of the B.A. program. The material for all four courses was specially developed in-house by a group of instructors at those colleges. An examination of the course material in general and reading texts in particular revealed many weaknesses. It was found that each textbook consists of 6 units, each of which consisting of a reading text, few vocabulary items and their dictionary definition and comprehension questions that students could answer by just matching the words of the question with those of the text. Vocabulary exercises required the students to fill in the blanks with the words that were defined or to look up the meanings in the dictionary. The reading passages lacked gradation in length and difficulty level and lacked variety in theme. They contained no context clues to develop the students’ ability to infer meaning of unknown words from context. English passages were simply a literal translation of Arabic sentences rather than connected discourse. The passages lacked cohesion, coherence and an organizational structure (enumeration, cause-effect, comparison-contrast, definition, sequencing, classification …etc). No devices signaling the text structure and no transitional words between sentences and paragraphs were used. Ideas are abstract, vague and have insufficient details. Stories had no theme, no setting, and no sequence of events. The passages lacked the stylistic features of English texts. Although the students are required to translate the same reading passages, translation skills and techniques were not mentioned. English for Islamic Studies courses need to be re-designed by a team of subject-matter, curriculum design and native English language experts. Discourse structure, stylistic features, register and specific reading and vocabulary skills should be taken into consideration in the course design.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

52 EFL students were enrolled in a two-hour Speaking III course. At first, the students were shy, refused to talk, could not generate ideas and produce correct sentences. Three months later, students’ speaking ability significantly improved. They could speak fluently using correct grammar and pronunciation and could easily generate ideas. Improvement was due to efficient task-based instruction. Each week a variety of small speaking tasks were practiced individually, in pairs and in small groups. The students were divided into groups in advance, had to prepare for the following week’s tasks at home. The task objective was stated. I made sure the students understood what they were supposed to do. At the beginning of every class session, a public speaking tip was given. Vocabulary items, a function, or a grammatical structure that might help them express themselves was written on the board and explained briefly. Then the students had to rearrange the chairs, and practice each task. I went around, sat with each group, listened, gave feedback, helped and encouraged. Activities were always performed within a time limit. The best group was given extra credit. Students were encouraged to speak and not to worry about mistakes. To help students speak in front of class, I would smile at them, assure them they could do it, prompt them with a sense of humor using questions or key words and praise performance. Quizzes were conducted in the language lab and required completion of several tasks. Students were handed the tasks on paper, given time to think and plan responses before recording them. I listened to the tapes, wrote comments on strengths and weaknesses and words of encouragement for each student. Samples of students’ oral presentations, students’ views, and T-test results of pre- and posttests, and descriptive statistics of the quizzes will be provided.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

Although the language program at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University offers several English language courses: Listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary building, grammar a dictionary skills in the first four semesters, the spelling skill is completely ignored. Since many college students at COLT are poor spellers, I developed a spelling course that was integrated into the teaching of listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and dictionary skills courses that she taught. The course aimed at providing students with the basics of English spelling and helping them associate the spoken sounds with the written forms. The course consisted of a series of graded spelling lessons that covered the following: English vowels, different pronunciation of the vowel letters; adding a final silent e; pronunciation of vowel digraphs; vowel digraphs and silent e; vowel digraphs with the same pronunciation; consonant letters with more than one sound; different pronunciations of consonant letters; silent consonants; double consonants; words with 2 pronunciations; 2 words with the same pronunciation; words with 2 parts of speech; words commonly confused; doubling consonants before –ed, -ing, -er; hidden sounds; spelling rules for regular verbs; dropping silent e before a suffix; doubling consonants before a suffix; changing y into I before a suffix; adding –s and –es to verbs and nouns; adding –ed, -ing, -er to verbs; spelling rules for the present progressive, the simple present tense and simple past tense; spelling of irregular verbs, plural nouns, adjectives, adverbs; rules for adding affixes (adding consonant and vowel suffixes, dropping silent e before a suffix, changing y into I before a suffix, doubling of consonants, adding a combining vowel or a combining consonant, consonant replacement before a suffix; changing pronunciation of a consonant before a suffix (assimilation); adding verb-forming, noun-forming, adjective-forming and adverb-forming suffixes; words with 2 parts of speech (words ending in –ate, -ment, -age, -ain); spoken vs written forms (assimilation, elision, flaps, reduction, vowel linkage, pause and juncture); punctuation (use of hyphenation in compound, apostrophes, contracts, ordinal numbers; acronyms and abbreviations; spelling variations (American vs British spelling). Each lesson consists of one rule and words illustrating that rule. To help the students compare and contrast, make the connection and recall the rules, a summary lesson was given every 5-7 lessons. Minimal pair practice is also given. The written forms are always associated with the spoken sounds and vice versa. The students were encouraged to make their own word families. Pre- and post-test results showed significant differences between students who took and those who did not take the spelling course in spelling performance as well as the spelling performance of students before and after taking the course.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

The study investigated college students’ attitudes towards the teaching and learning of English and Arabic, towards using English and Arabic as a medium of instruction at the university level, and the types of educational reforms that need to be carried out in the light of their responses. Findings of interviews and questionnaires administered to a sample of students at Jordan University and King Saud University showed that 45% of the subjects prefer to educate their children at an international school where they can learn all the subjects in English at a very young age. 96% of the students at Jordan University and 82% of the subjects at king Saud University believe that Arabic can be used as a medium of instruction in religion, history, Arabic literature and education, whereas English is more appropriate for teaching medicine, pharmacy, engineering, science, nursing, and computer science. Findings indicated that the students are more keen on teaching their children English than Arabic. They consider English a superior language, being an international language, and the language of science and technology, research, electronic databases, technical terminology, dictionaries, and teaching methodology. They gave many educational, vocational, technological, social reasons for favoring the English language. The study concluded that Arabic is facing a serious threat by the expansion of English language in all walks of life, lack of language planning, linguistic policies that protect, revive and develop the Arabic language, inadequate Arabicization processes in the Arab world, inadequate number of technical books translated and published in Arabic, misconceptions among college students about first and second language acquisition by children and adults, and about the language of instruction at medical and technological colleges around the world.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

English is, undoubtedly, the global language. One of every four people in the world can communicate in English. English is the official language of 85% of world organizations. It is the language of political meetings, the language of international conferences, the language of technology, commerce, banking, tourism, most research papers, reference books, terminology, economics, and international business. It is the language of the most widely-circulated newspapers, T.V. programs, movies, airlines, multinational corporations, and foreign labor. 90% of the material available on the internet is in English. What made English the most powerful language in the world? This study will explore the historical, political, economic, technological and cultural factors that made English a global language in the past and present. What does the future of English look like?

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

65 EFL freshman students were enrolled in a 4-hour writing course. Pretest results showed that the students could not put two words together. The posttest results showed a great improvement in writing ability. The students could write fluently and communicate easily. Spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors significantly decreased. Improvement was noted in essay length, neatness, mechanical correctness and style. Improvement was due to student factors and efficient task management factors. Although the students’ English was extremely poor, they were eager to learn. They accepted comments on their essays and were always ready to try again. Each week a variety of small writing tasks were practiced. For each task, the objective was stated, what to be performed was explained and illustrated by examples while students are attentive. Then the students practiced the task under supervision. Individual help was provided. Extension Activities were done in class within a time limit. At the end of the week, all the tasks were put together in writing a one-paragraph essay. Students were encouraged to write and not to worry about spelling, grammatical, punctuation or capitalization mistakes. I gave communicative feedback focusing on meaning and only errors related to tasks under study were highlighted. Feedback was provided on the presence and location of errors but no correct forms were provided. Self-editing and peer-editing were encouraged. Extra credit was given for good paragraphs. Quizzes were given every other week. They required completion of similar tasks or writing of an essay alternatively. Graded quizzes were returned with comments on strengths and weaknesses, and with words of encouragement. Answers were always discussed in class. A Powerpoint presentation will show samples of students’ essays, students’ views, and T-test results of the pre- and posttests, in addition to descriptive statistics of the quizzes to show the gradual improvement.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

Thirty six EFL freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were given a dictation, a listening comprehension test and a decoding test. The purpose of the study was to find out whether EFL freshmen students’ spelling ability correlates with their listening comprehension and decoding skills. Data analysis showed that the typical EFL freshman student misspelled 41.5% of the words on the dictation, gave 49.5% correct responses on the listening comprehension test, and 52% correct responses on the decoding test. The median and mean scores showed that the subjects’ spelling, listening and decoding achievement is low, which implied that the subjects were having spelling, listening comprehension and decoding difficulties. The students’ spelling errors and correct listening comprehension and decoding responses revealed strong correlations among spelling ability, listening comprehension and decoding skills. This means that good spelling ability in EFL is related to good listening comprehension and good decoding skills. The better the listening comprehension and decoding abilities, the fewer the spelling errors. When listening comprehension and decoding skills are poor, spelling ability is also poor. Recommendations for spelling, listening and decoding instruction are given (191 words).

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

The present study found that 90% of female Saudi translators who graduated between 1990 and 1996 are not working as translators. Although translation jobs are available in hospitals, translation bureaus, and embassies, many graduates find the jobs open for women unsuitable because of working conditions, stringent qualifications, staff policies, salaries and benefits. Others disliked the nature of the work and cited insufficient information about employment opportunities, lack of motivation, and familial, social, and cultural factors as reasons for unemployment.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

159 grammatical agreement errors collected from the translation projects of nine Saudi graduating seniors majoring in translation were analyzed. A grammatical agreement error was defined as the incorrect inflection of nouns, verbs, adjectives, anaphoric pronouns, and determiners to show a mismatch in singular, dual, or plural forms or a mismatch in masculine and feminine gender in correspondence with a subject, modified noun or antecedent. There were more disagreeing verbs than pronouns than adjectives. There were more gender than number agreement errors and more interlingual than intralingual. 27% were due to incorrect gender assignment to the controller or target, 3% were due to the inability to determine the number of the controller or target, 24% were due to inability to associate the verb, pronoun or adjective with its correct referent. There were more agreement errors when the controller was singular and plural, when the plural controller was non-human and when the controller was feminine.